Green Line Extension

Planned future site of East Somerville station

The Green Line Extension is planned to have two branches, which will split just past a relocated Lechmere station in East Cambridge. The project's two branches consist of:

• A main branch, 3.4 mi (5.5 km) long, to Medford within the existing Lowell Line commuter rail right-of-way with five stations and the terminus at Medford/​Tufts in Medford. The "Medford Branch" will become part of the D branch, with intermediate stations located at East Somerville, Gilman Square, Magoun Square, and Ball Square.[4][5]
• A second branch, approximately 0.9 mi (1.4 km) long, to Union Square in Somerville. This branch would follow the existing Fitchburg Line commuter rail right-of-way and includes a single station at Union Square. The Union Square Branch will be designated as part of the E branch.[4][5]

Additionally, the project will include acquisition of 24 new Green Line cars and construction of a support facility for storage and servicing of the fleet and existing north side Green Line operations.[6]

The original plans called for a further station, Route 16, at the Mystic Valley Parkway in West Medford, as well as an intermediate stop at Winthrop Street and Boston Avenue at the northern edge of the Tufts campus. The Winthrop Street stop was dropped from plans due to the proximity of other stations and neighborhood opposition, while the Route 16 station was placed on hold due to cost issues. In 2011, the Boston MPO decided to allocate funding in the 2016–2020 time period for the Route 16 station.[7][8]

The Lechmere Viaduct opened in 1912, speeding travel times between downtown Boston and East Cambridge (and thus Somerville). In 1922, Lechmere station was opened as a transfer point between surface streetcars and subway streetcar trains, allowing the Tremont Street subway to act more like a rapid transit service. That year, the Boston Elevated Railway indicated that it expected to eventually extend rapid transit service northwest from Lechmere through Somerville to relieve streetcar crowding at Harvard station.[9]

The Boston Division of Metropolitan Planning's 1926 Report on Improved Transportation Facilities further considered rapid transit conversion of the Tremont Street subway (and a connection to the East Boston Tunnel) as well as running rapid transit lines along existing mainline railroads to replace inner suburb local stops.[10] The conversion proposal—which would have involved a continuous tunnel running from Lake Street in Brighton to Maverick Square in East Boston, plus a second through route from Lechmere to Tremont Street in Roxbury—was never implemented except for the partial completion of the Huntington Avenue Subway in 1941. However, many of the other extension proposals were partially or wholly completed, with the opening of the Blue Line to Wonderland in 1954, the Highland Branch conversion to light rail in 1959, the partial conversion of the Reading Hill Line to the Haymarket North Extension in 1977, the extension of the Red Line to Braintree in 1980, and the relocation of the Orange Line to the Southwest Corridor in 1987. Two additional projects were considered in the report but not recommended for immediate work: a circumferential route which would reappear years later as the Urban Ring, and an extension of Tremont Street subway through service from Lechmere to Woburn via the Lowell Line.[10]

Abandoned trolley rail, formerly used by the #101 route, on Main Street in Somerville

By 1940, just four streetcar routes remained in Somerville: the 87 Clarendon Hill – Lechmere via Somerville Avenue and 88 Clarendon Hill – Lechmere via Highland Avenue pair, the 89 Clarendon Hill – Sullivan Square Station route, and the 101 Salem Street – Sullivan Square Station route which connected with the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway's Fellsway Line to Stoneham. The 87 and 88 were converted to trackless trolleys in 1941, while the 89 and 101 saw heavy wartime use and lasted until 1946 and 1947, respectively.[11]

In the 1945–47 Coolidge Commission reports, many of the same transit projects were again proposed; but this time the Woburn extension was given a high rating.[10] The extension would allow the Boston & Maine Railroad to abandon their local stops along the corridor (all stops from West Medford inwards had previously lost most of their ridership to streetcars) while providing a faster trip than on surface transit.[12][13]

However, other extensions received priority, and the Woburn extension was not built. The B&M dropped the last three local stops south of West Medford in 1958 due to declining ridership.[14][15] In 1955–57 the B&M raised the tracks through Wedgemere and Winchester Center onto a high grade and viaduct in order to eliminate busy grade crossings.[16] However, the elevated portion was only built with two tracks, preventing a rapid transit extension from reaching to Woburn, since two tracks would still be needed for Lowell Line service. All discussion of the project since has focused on an extension no further than West Medford. The trackless trolleys were replaced by buses in 1959 and 1963.[17]

Map of Phase I construction

The Medford Street bridge in Somerville was rebuilt as part of Phase I construction.

Somerville mayor Joseph Curtatone speaks at the groundbreaking

After decades of no action, in 1990 Massachusetts agreed to a legally binding resolution to extend the line through Somerville to offset the additional burdens in traffic and pollution within the city due to completion of the Big Dig project. The current phase of planning began in 2005 with the completion of the MBTA's "Beyond Lechmere Northwest Corridor Study Major Investment Study/Alternatives Analysis".[18]

Despite this legal commitment, however, the Green Line Extension project lagged far behind schedule, prompting the City of Somerville and the Conservation Law Foundation to file a lawsuit to keep the project moving. In 2006, this litigation, with the help of community support and advocacy groups such as Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP) and the Union Square Task Force, finally brought about a multimillion-dollar state investment in planning for the Green Line Extension with mandated completion date of December 2014.[19] Potential station stops were announced for the first time in May 2008.[20] In May 2010, MassDOT and the City of Somerville reached an agreement to relocate the planned maintenance facility further into the industrial Inner Belt District, next to the MBTA Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility. The previous site was located along the Medford Branch, slightly closer to a single studio building.[21] In May 2011, the MBTA acquired the property and trackage rights for the relocated Lechmere station from pan Am Railways; in return, Pan Am would receive the existing station parcel for future development.[22]

In 2010, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) announced that the new service was expected to be operational in October 2015; interim air quality offset measures would need to be taken if the project misses its December 2014 deadline as expected. The Department of Transportation had previously announced that due to budget limitations, the portion from College Avenue to Route 16 would be a future second phase of the extension, not included in the current proposed project.[23]

In August 2011, MassDOT announced that opening of the Extension would be postponed to Fall 2018 at the earliest. Completion of the Extension to College Avenue near Tufts University could be delayed to 2020, while the terminus at Mystic Valley Parkway remains deferred indefinitely. The stated reason for the delays was difficulties in land acquisition, as well as implied concerns about cost controls and financing.[24] Interim air-quality improvement measures will be necessary due to the project delays. Possibilities include extending Green Line branches to Lechmere, increased bus service in Somerville and Medford, and adding temporary or permanent commuter rail stops along the GLX corridor.[25]

On June 11, 2012, the Federal Transit Administration approved the Extensions for entry into the Preliminary Engineering phase as part of the New Starts program. This approval was a necessary step in MassDOT's application for $557 million in New Starts funding.[26]

In August 2012, the City of Somerville, MassDOT, and the MBTA reached a memorandum of agreement about the Union Square station. Through the Somerville Redevelopment Authority, the City will acquire $8 million worth of land for the station and grant the MBTA a permanent easement. In return, the MBTA and MassDOT will pay for cleanup costs at the site, begin construction by the spring of 2014 and open the station no later than early 2017.[27] In October 2012, the Somerville Board of Aldermen approved the Union Square Redevelopment Plan and authorized an $8 million bond, including $6 million to purchase the land and $2 million for cleanup and station planning.[28]

In December 2014, the FTA said it intended to pay $996 million of the extension's $2.2 billion costs. The remainder of expenses will be paid by the state, from either its operating funds or bonds.[29] On April 18, 2014, Governor Patrick signed a $12.7 billion bonding bill which included $1.3 billion for the Green Line Extension, as well as $2.3 billion for South Coast Rail and $325 million for South Station expansion.[30]

In August 2015, the MBTA disclosed that the project would cost approximately $3 billion, a $1.08 billion increase from previous estimates. The revised cost called into question whether the project could be completed; options like scaling down stations or the maintenance facility will also be considered.[31]

In December 2015, the MBTA ended its contracts with the project's general contractor, project manager, and designer, among others, and announced that while components of the project under construction would continue, no further work would be awarded or started.[32]

On May 9, 2016, the GLX Interim Project Management Team submitted a report outlining a redesigned project to the MassDOT Board of Directors and the MBTA Fiscal & Management Control Board, which then voted to ‘support advancing the Green Line Extension Project (“GLX Project”) and [seek] Federal Transit Administration (“FTA”) review and approval of the redesigned GLX Project'.[44]

The first step will be resubmitting the revised plan to the FTA for approval. If approved the remaining work will be reprocured using the design-build project delivery method, a process expected to take 18 months if done on an expedited basis. Construction would then take between 43 and 47 months.

To achieve needed cost savings a number of elements of the project were simplified or dropped. Stations were to have open platforms with several shelters, similar to the Riverside Line. Amenities such as escalators, redundant elevators, fare gates, personnel rooms, toilets, extra structure for The RIDE drop-offs, and canopies were to be eliminated at most stations. Bike storage was still to be provided at all stations. The Vehicle Maintenance Facility was to be reduced by roughly half, with storage for 44 Green Line vehicles instead of 88 in the previous design. Three bridges, at Lowell, Medford and School Streets, that were to be replaced will be retained, with the westbound GLX track tunneling behind abutments. The College Avenue Bridge will not be widened. The Broadway Bridge project was simplified and the bridge will be fully closed during reconstruction.

The extension of the Somerville Community Path was to be trimmed back to terminate at Washington Street, Somerville instead of Water Street in Cambridge. The new path design shifts from the west side of the track to the east side and then back again between Central Street and School Street and has fewer entrances from cross streets. South of Washington Street, bike commuters would have to use city streets, including the McGrath Highway, to reach the Charles River bike path network and downtown Boston.[45]

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) approved the modified $2.3 billion plan on April 4, 2017.[46] The first federal funds for the project were received in July 2017.[47]

The contact was rebid with a provision for the optional restoration of six of the elements deleted in the 2016 plan. On November 17, 2017, the MBTA selected GLX Constructors (a consortium of Fluor Enterprises, the Middlesex Corporation, Herzog Contracting Corporation, and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure) to build the project. The consortium's base bid was $954 million — well below the state "affordability limit" of $1.319 billion - and the total cost will be $1.08 billion. The total cost encompasses all six optional elements, including canopies and additional elevators at stations, public art, a full-size vehicle maintenance facility, and the full extension of the Somerville Community Path to Cambridge, but at a narrower, 10-foot, width..[48][49][50] The new line is expected to be completed at the end of 2021, with some stations possibly opening that summer.[1]

On December 21, 2018, the first of 24 new Green Line vehicles, purchased as part of the GLX project, went into regular passenger service. The shells and frames for the low-floor CAF cars are fabricated in Spain, with final assembly in Elmira, NY.[51]